Common Java Cookbook

Edition: 0.19

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6.1. Obtaining Commons Digester

6.1.1. Problem

You need to use Commons Digester to quickly parse an XML document into a set of objects.

6.1.2. Solution

To use Commons Digester in a Maven 2 project, add the following dependency to your project's pom.xml:

Example 6.1. Adding a Dependency on Commons Digester

    <dependency>
      <groupId>commons-digester</groupId>
      <artifactId>commons-digester</artifactId>
      <version>1.8</version>
    </dependency>

If you are not sure what this means, I'd suggest reading Maven: The Definitive Guide. When you depend on a library in Maven 2, all you need to do is add the dependency groupId, artifactId, and version to your project's dependencies. Once you do this, Maven 2 will download the dependency and make it available on your project's classpath.

6.1.3. Discussion

Commons Digester started as a part of Struts, and it was moved to the Commons project by way of the Commons Sandbox in early 2001. Digester is the mechanism Struts uses to read XML configuration; struts-config.xml is the main configuration point for Struts, and it is converted to a set of objects using the Digester. The Digester's most straightforward application is the mapping of an XML document to a set of Java objects, but, as shown in this chapter and Chapter 12, Digester can also be used to create a simple XML command language and search index. Digester is a shortcut for creating a SAX parser. Almost anything you can do with a SAX parser can be done with Commons Digester.

6.1.4. See Also

For more information about Commons Digester, see the Commons Digester project page at http://commons.apache.org/digester. For information about using the Digester to create a Lucene index, see Chapter 12.


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Common Java Cookbook by Tim O'Brien is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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